Chapter 8: Why Go to Others?

Is Brahma greater thanwhat he arose from?Are the Vedas greater thantheir very source?

Says Kabir:

I’m so confused.Is the temple greater thanhe who serves god?

An egoist is afraid to accept advice from others, he wants to disentangle himself from his own entanglements. Even to accept the fact that he is entangled, hurts his ego. So an egoist cannot approach a master. And the interesting thing about the whole phenomenon is that all of your entanglements are because of the ego.

You try to solve your problems with the help of the ego, and by the very effort of trying to solve them, you become more and more caught up in them. The ego is the cause of entanglement, and so you are certain to become more entangled. The way to unravel your difficulties is not through the ego. You are trying to use as a medicine the very illness that is the cause of the sad plight you call your life, that is responsible for the diseased state your life is in. This medicine simply makes you sicker. You may possibly save yourself from the sickness, but there is no remedy to save you from this particular medicine. There would be no end to the complications in the life of a man who looked upon sickness as medicine.

It is essential to understand one thing first - you must always look within to find the cause of a particular complication.

And at the same time you must move in the opposite direction. You will find the solution there.

The ego is entanglement; surrender is disentanglement. The ego has created the disease; surrender will cure it. That is why all the scriptures, all religious sects and all doctrines have sung the praises of surrender. Surrender means you are unable to disentangle yourself. It means you are becoming more and more entangled and so you finally give up - you finally surrender yourself; you finally seek guidance from one who has broken away, from one who has moved in the opposite direction.

Unless you set your ego aside you cannot approach a master. But you consult your ego first, and only when it says “yes” do you proceed. This means that your ego is superior to your master, because you only appoint him with the approval of your ego. The master will not be able to help you much.